Tackling the plastic crisis
Changing behaviours around plastic manufacture, use and disposal
Our Art and Design Foundation Studies students and staff have curated a virtual exhibition that aims to raise awareness and prompt a shift in behaviours around the environmental impact of the manufacture, use and disposal of plastics.
The project was inspired by scientific possibilities and extensive environmental evidence, and collective shock at the severity of continually emerging information surrounding the plastics crisis.
Through the introduction of a practical project brief in 2019, Foundation staff and students set out to challenge behaviour relating to our daily use of plastics. An inaugural body of work was exhibited in London, at the Home Office, in support of the 25-year vision for environmental change issued by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA).
We wanted to raise awareness of the use of plastics, especially single-use, that remains in existence well beyond its period of use, in most cases for 400 years, and damages wildlife, impacts breeding and food cycles – including microplastics in our own food chain – and continues to scar the planet.
Through this project students and staff have heightened the awareness of the enormous issues that our daily use of plastic presents. Their hope is that through continued audience engagement, the wider community and broader demographic will consider their personal responsibility towards ensuring the future protection of our planet.
Art and Design students often become influencers and designers in industry, product design, architecture, advertising, textiles and fashion businesses and art installations. These students will go on to make decisions around the use of materials that can have a negative or positive impact on products and the environment.
With a commitment to sharing in the responsibility for our environmental performance, the Foundation community have pledged to reduce and eliminate the use of single use plastics; re-use and dispose of plastics responsibly; challenge choices and shift behaviours around the manufacture, use and disposal of plastics; embed ethical and environmental considerations within future projects; and to promote awareness and action through visual information and discussion.
The 2021 virtual exhibition was launched to coincide with the G7 summit, which saw world leaders gather to discuss some of the globe’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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